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The Duke Fights Back Against Scathing Reviews
I don’t know how many of you have been keeping up with The Duke’s long awaited return, (well, long awaited for some, I would’ve been content with waiting indefinitely) but the fourteen years many fans spent waiting for the game don’t seem to have been justified. I got a fair share of hate for pointing out how repulsive the game looked to me, and based on the comments I received from many Duke fans who didn’t mind giving me a piece of their mind, I’m thinking there are a few Duke fans among Dead Pixels’ readers. And just to clear things up, I too enjoyed the Duke and his irreverent ways, but that was fourteen years ago, and I was eight.
But that’s not the point here. Instead we’re going to take a look at a lesson in Public Relations 101: What Not to Use Your Twitter Account for. After seeing the dreadful reviews Duke Nukem Forever has been receiving since it’s release (to give you an idea of how bad it is the game currently stands at a 49 on Metacritic, averaged from 41 reviews at the time of this writing) the game’s PR firm, The Redner Group decided to take action. Head past the break so we can have a few laughs at someone’s expense. It would seem The Redner Group took a look at the negative responses to The Duke and decided they were a little too harsh, so in retaliation they decided to post a response to the critics who negatively reviewed their game. The tweet, which you can see below, has since been deleted, but thankfully the quick thinking lads and ladettes over at Ars Technica captured it before it was removed.
It’s not uncommon for a critic to be blacklisted after lambasting a game in their review; why would you spend time and money sending a review copy to a critic or site that probably won’t give your game a positive review? But tweeting to the world that fact is an incredibly dumb move. And in a followup tweet, “Bad scores are fine. Venom filled reviews…that’s completely different,” they continued. Now I really, really want to review this game, but don’t worry Duke fans, I won’t. I feel it would be far too venomous.
So, I have to ask: has anyone gotten the game, and more importantly, is anyone actually enjoying it? Don’t worry if you say yes to the latter, there’s no accounting for poor taste.
Sam Neill, the New Zealand actor best known for his role in 1993’s Jurassic Park, has passed away this week at 78 years old. In a statement shared on Neill’s Instagram page this morning, the actor’s family said that his passing was “sudden and unexpected.”
Neill had been diagnosed with a rare blood cancer in 2022, but stated the following year that he was in remission. The family notes that he “remained cancer free” at the time of his passing.
The family statement reads, “It is with immense sadness that the whānau of Sam Neill share the news of his passing on Monday 13th July, in Sydney Australia. Sam was surrounded by family and passed with the dignity that has characterised his whole life. The loss was sudden and unexpected but blessed by the fact that Sam remained cancer free.
“They would like to express their deepest gratitude to the staff at St Vincent’s Private Hospital for their incredible care. More details will be shared later, but for now, on behalf of the family, we ask that you respect their privacy as they navigate this immeasurable loss.”
In addition to his iconic role as Dr. Alan Grant in the original Jurassic Park and the sequels Jurassic Park III and Jurassic World: Dominion, Sam Neill left an indelible mark on the horror genre with memorable roles in Andrzej Żuławski’s Possession, The Omen: The Final Conflict, John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, and sci-fi horror favorite Event Horizon.
Sam Neill’s vast resume in film and television began in the early 1970s and also includes the films Sleeping Dogs, Enigma, The Good Wife, A Cry in the Dark, Dead Calm, The Hunt for Red October, Memoirs of an Invisible Man, Hostage, The Jungle Book, Snow White: A Tale of Terror, The Horse Whisperer, Bicentennial Man, Daybreakers, Escape Plan, and Thor: Ragnarok.
Sam Neill is survived by his four children and eight grandchildren.
Steven Spielberg said in a statement to Variety, “I owe a debt of gratitude to Roger Donaldson, Gilliam Armstrong, Graham Baker and Phillip Noyce for casting Sam Neill in the roles in which he was so brilliant that brought him to my attention and led to his playing Dr. Alan Grant in Jurassic Park. Sam was exceptionally collaborative. It was a stretch for him to play a character who acted as though children were messy and smelly because this was the opposite of the loving father he was to his children. I adored making all the Jurassic movies with him.”
Spielberg adds, “Along with Laura Dern and Jeff Goldblum, we will always have our Jurassic family and Sam will never be forgotten by us or his many millions of fans around the world.”
Sam Neill in ‘Event Horizon’
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